


5 Years After

by httydstories



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-10-20 16:56:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/httydstories/pseuds/httydstories
Summary: What if Hiccup ran away and everybody thought he was dead, except one person who knew the truth. Things couldn't be that diferent, right? Afer all how much could thing change in five years!





	1. At Nightfall

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I DO NOT own 'How To Train Your Dragon'

## Chapter 1: At Nightfall

* * *

Vikings. They are the most stubborn beings on planet Earth.

Thanks to that, she automatically has to reasons to be in this situation, again.

The first one, since they are so stubborn, they still keep up with this stupid idea, lock up dragons (even though there haven’t been raids for 3 years, thanks to stubborn issues, they still do it).

The second reason, she’s a viking, like it or not, stubbornness it’s in her blood.

That’s why she’s in this situation, again. The young viking has the filling she’s being watched, as always, but the more she looks around, the surer she gets that she’s alone. Maybe she gets this filling because nobody approves what she used to do and is about to do again, if anybody found out she would be exiled forever or would be sentenced to dead for treason. But she has to do it, it’s wrong and this the least she can do to help them.

The day is over for a while now, everybody in the village is already sleeping and here she is. At the main gate of the arena, ready to release them.

She looks around, to make sure she won’t be caught. Seeing she is alone she steps inside.

She goes to the first cage and opens it. A Gronckle. _Yes, it’s gonna be easy this one._ She mentally celebrated.

The thing is, this young adult already does this for 3 years now, and with time we learn some things, so she did learn some facts about her scaly friends like: how to deal with each specie, how to deal with one injured dragon, which are the most difficult to calm down, which are the easiest, and it happens that the Gronckles are the easiest to calm. They are very friendly actually.

The moment she opens the cage, the dragon tensed up and in a matter of seconds, was ready to attack. Typical. She instantly puts her knife down (the one she used to open the cage) and raise her hands to show she intents no harm.

The made the dragon curious, no human does that, he turned is head to the side, watching her. After a while with her completely still, he approached her and she showed him her hand, after smelling it, he accepted and reached for her, resting his head in her hand.

The young woman patted him for a little and them took him of the cage and sent him away. With that he flew away without a sound.

She made the same with the others, this time they only had locked 2 Gronckles, 1 Hideous Zippleback and one last she was going to release. 

This last cage was in bad conditions and it made more noise than the others while opening, the dragon most be more agitated than normal. Opening it cautiously, she finds a Deadly Nadder slightly disoriented by all the noise.

It took a little more time than usual, but she calmed down the Nadder and took her out of the cage, and although the dragon was very scared, she made no noise, and the young woman was thankful. 

The Nadder was ready to take of into the sky when a loud ‘CLASH’ was heard in all the arena. The woman looked around only to find the Zippleback she had released ‘checking out’ the weapons.

_Zipplebacks are so stupid. I’m gonna be caught. Thor help me. _With that the Nadder started to squeal and stomp. Without thinking, the young viking took both dragons out of the arena and after making sure they were flying away, she run as fast as her legs could and silently ran behind the village’s houses until she reached her. She cautiously climbed her house’s wall until she reached her bedroom window. Once inside she got to bed and tried to calm down after all that adrenaline rush and tried to pretend that nothing happened. 

* * *

**A little before**

They got to the three were they always watch the event, it’s tall and we can hide perfectly well and the darkness of the night helped a little more.

“Right on time, uh bud?!” – the young man asked is friend. 

All he got was mumbled he couldn’t quite ear as an answer.

He turned his attention to the arena and saw her. She was wearing her dark brown cloak, it covers her completely and has a hood that covers her head and most of her face. It probably doesn’t belong to her, it’s to big, but she has always that when she’s doing this, it must be har disguise, and he must say, it works very well.

With the darkness of the night and with that hood, he can’t even imagine who n Thor’s name is _she_. He thinks it’s a woman because of _her_ fragile frame, but he’s not sure. _She_ never brings any weapon, only that knife _she_ uses to open the cages. There’s no clue to know who _she_ is, but it must be a woman.

This time she is actually being quite fast, is already in the last cage. He always gets fascinated and anxious watching doing this.

The first time he saw her do this, when he found out, maybe 6 months ago, he was dumbfounded, he thought she was going to hurt them or something like that, but then she started to open the cages and releasing them, he was shocked to say the least. He never imagined that anyone from Berk would do anything like that. But maybe, not only he felt shocked, but also felt admiration. Admiration for the brave person, that even knowing the consequences of her treason would still help ‘the enemy’.

A little touch in his arm brought him back to reality and he saw his friend a little agitated.

“What is it, bud?”

When he looked back to the arena, he saw why the strange behavior of his friend. She calmed down the last dragon, now he can see that it’s a Deadly Nadder, but on the other side of the arena is the Zippleback she realized before and he is now inspecting the support were the weapons are.

He starts to go to the main gate to go away, and he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding in relive. But then…

CLASH

The Zippleback hit the support with its tail making some of the weapons to fall to the ground making a not so gracious noise. The Nadder grew anxious and started to squeal and stomp. _How great, more noise for her to get caught._ He was mentally panicking for her.

With a calm and speed he never thought possible for this situation, she managed to make both dragons fly away and ran really fast, disappearing form his sight in no time.

Not even a minute after she ran away, many other vikings got to the arena, all armed, but when they saw the empty cages they got, let’s say, upset that that had happen, _again_.

Who wasn’t upset was the chief, Stoick the Vast, he wasn’t upset, he was furious, completely mad, his face almost exploded from rage.

After much shouting and screaming from the chief, everybody returned to their houses since they could do nothing.

_Oh My Thor! That woman is crazy, she almost got caught today. I don’t know if she is going to make this again so soon after this one!_

He was pulled out of his thoughts once again, by his friend, who looked tired and ready to go home.

“Yes bud, let’s go home and pray for this crazy woman to stay well after this one.” And with that he mounted his dragon and fellow and they went to the place they called home.


	2. Worst News Ever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I DO NOT own How To Train Your Dragon

## Chapter 2: Worst News Ever

The next day everything was going relatively well, that is, as well as it could.

After her morning train in the forest, the young viking came back to the village, only to hear everybody talking about what happened the night before. While she was walking, she received same glances from a few villagers that still criticized her after all these years. Well, at least she could be sure that no one would suspect her. She doesn’t understand how there still are people that hadn’t forgotten, 5 years already passed since she received that name. Now she knew what he went through. _Stupid people. _She shook that thoughts off of her head and continued toward her destiny.

While she was going to the Great Hall, she noticed that Gobber was alone at the Forge and decided to go to him.

During the past 5 years, she has been coming here many times, either for making Gobber company or just to sit in the little seat, which was in the backroom that he used to occupy, and admire all the sketches, blueprints and strange inventions that he had left behind. It always made her fill closer to him even though he wasn’t there.

“Hi Gobber, need any help?”

The old blacksmith shuddered all over upon hearing her voice. This isn’t the first time something like that happens, it used to happen when she first started to come by, but he soon got used to her sudden arrivals.

“Is everything alright? You look a little edgy today.”

“Astrid lass, what are you doing here today?” _Okay, he’s definitely strange today. _This rarely happens and only when he is hiding something from her, but she knows that, in these situations, it’s better not to put pressure on him, so she ignored.

“I was passing by and I noticed that it’s pretty calm around here today and decided to see how you were.” She made up as an excuse “So, how are you?”

“Uhm” he hesitated, knowing that she knew more than she was saying, but he let it pass and thanked to all the Gods that she hasn’t pressed. “Everything is alright lass, the day here has been calm today, how about you?”

She hesitated a little but quickly answered “Everything is perfect.” She thought she had seen the old man grimace, but she ignored it and resumed her way to the Great Hall.

* * *

After having lunch alone, _as always,_ Astrid decided to go to a place she hadn’t been for a while now, so she entered the forest an started her walk to her destination. After maybe 15 minutes walking, she finally arrived and sat down on top of a medium sized rock. This was one of her favorite places in all Berk. Excluding the Forge, this was where she felt closer to him, after all, this was the place where she saw him for the last time before he left.

* * *

** _5 years before_ **

** _There he was, in the middle of the arena, with a Monstrous Nightmare right in front of him. Her heart was beating so fast that almost damaged her rib cage, she couldn’t do nothing more than just watch. Everything was going as he wanted. The dragon was calm and everybody was watching them completely silent. Nobody knew what to think. The silence and the tension were so that you could cut them with a spreading knife. But that didn’t last long. When she thought that he had made it, the chief recovered from his initial shock and soon interrupted everything. With the sound provoked by the collision of the chief’s hammer and the protection around the arena, the Nightmare panicked and started sending fire everywhere. Before she thought of what she was doing, the teenager was already inside the arena trying to save him. _ **

** _Chaos was installed inside the arena, vikings shouting from one side to the other, the chief was furious, the scared dragon was now chasing Hiccup and she was trying to reach him and help him. All of this was interrupted by the unmistakable whistle of the famous Night Fury. No one knew what to do, the fear caused by the sound obvious in their faces. Out of nowhere a little explosion was heard and a hole on one side of the arena’s protection appeared an there he was, Toothless was in the arena fighting with the Nightmare and protecting Hiccup. When the Nightmare retreated everyone was speechless and she already was by Hiccup’s side. Suddenly she heard Hiccup’s voice, who decided to take this opportunity that there was silence._ **

** _“What you just witnessed were two dragons fighting each other, one to attack and one to protect. That Nightmare only attacked because he felt threatened, until that moment he wouldn’t do any harm to anyone” He looked angrily at his father, who was with an unreadable expression “And Toothless came to save and protect me because that’s what happens when we win their confidence and loyalty, they protect us as if we were one of them. Dragons can be great friends if given a chance, they ca-”_ **

** _“I’ve heard enough” resound the very, very angry chief’s voice “Where did you get all this craziness? We are vikings, we fight we these beasts since the time of our ancestors. What’s wrong with you?”_ **

** _“We don’t have to fight them, we can unit and fight together, we-”_ **

** _“Together? With these beats? Never! Captor the Night Fury!”_ **

** _“No, don’t touch him!”_ **

** _“Hiccup, let them get hold of the dragon! NOW!”_ **

** _“Never, you won’t touch him, not even over my dead body.” In this moment Stoick looked him up and down and gave him his deadlier look. “Very well” he started “if you want so much to protect your pet dragon than be my guest but I guarantee you this, if you do so, you are no longer my son, you are no longer a Hooligan and you no longer belong to Berk.”_ **

**_Shock, pain, sadness, rage and determination could be seen in Hiccup’s face, after hearing his own father telling him this. Next to him, he could see Astrid gaping. _How can a father say this to his own son?_ Was all that came to her mind. But apart from everything, Hiccup stood strong. “Well” he started shortly after “in that case, I think this is where we separate our ways. Until never, Stoick.” And with that he climbed onto Toothless and disappeared into the skies, leaving behind everybody speechless._**

Astrid still remembers how she ran the faster she could until she reached the place she was right now.

** _As soon as she reached the Cove, she saw him and Toothless, he was preparing to leave. “Hiccup” she shouted while she was going in his direction “What are you doing?” panic was obvious in her voice._ **

** _He gave her a sad smile “You were there, you know what happened. I have to go, I was disowned and banish by my father.” That only made her panic grow. “Maybe he said that on the spur of the moment, maybe it will be better tomorrow, mayb-”_ **

** _“There is no maybe, Astrid.” He stopped her rambling with a sad tone “I challenged him in front of the whole village and he punished me for that.” She couldn’t, didn’t want to believe. “But…” _ **

** _“There is no other way, I have to go. But I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you, nobody is being affected, nobody will miss me.” No, that wasn’t true, she would. She would miss him very much. “I will, I will miss you.” She said softly, almost as a whisper and not meeting his eyes, instead, she had her gaze towards the ground._ **

** _With that he took both her hands in his “Astrid, look at me” he asked her softly. Reluctantly she did so “I have to go. Everybody knows how he is, and he will never come back in his words and much less will forgive my treason.” He left go of her hands and lifted his own towards his neck from where he took a strange necklace and putting it around her neck. “Keep it” he told her while she looked at him with wide eyes “that way, you will always have a part of me with you. Astrid, I promise I will never forget you and I also will miss you very much, you’re probably the only one I’m gonna miss.” He pointed at the necklace, now placed around her neck “let this seal my promise and let it remind you of it”_ **

** _She didn’t want to cry, she wouldn’t cry, she was Astrid Hofferson after all, but she only realized she already was doing it when he put his hand on her cheek and caressed it while was wiping the tears. “P-promise… promise you’ll be safe and sound, please” was the only thing she was able to say. He gave her a sad smile, sad but sincere. “I promise” After hearing that she pulled him into a tight embrace which he returned. _ **

* * *

After they pulled apart from the embrace, they said their goodbyes and Hiccup and Toothless disappeared into the skies once more and, after putting herself together again, she went home. After that day she never took off the necklace. It was unique, more emotionally than anything else, but it also was a unique piece of jewelry. It had two parts, a delicate silver string and a pendant. After some time, she came to the realization that it was a dragon scale and not any dragon scale, a Night Fury scale, Toothless’ scale. The scale had, all around, a silver rim, in the front had the Strike Class symbol engraved with a silver material and in the back a word also engraved with the same material. But it wasn’t any word, it was a name…

“Hiccup”

So many things have changed since he left. She was right, she really misses him. If he was here, she knew things would be different, if he had convinced the others it would all be completely different.

But she can’t hold on the past and in the ‘ifs’, she has to go on.

After composing herself, the young woman decided it was time to go back. Differently from her mood, everything was calm and peaceful in the village, something very strange considering the events of last night, but for once she let it pass and went to her house.

When she arrived to the Hofferson’s house, she spotted her parents, _both of them_, sitting in the main room and waiting for her.

_I did nothing wrong, what in Thor’s name do they want know. Is it possible for them to have found out about yesterday? _A small (gigantic) wave of worry about the possibility of her being discovered filled her mind.

“Astrid” her thoughts were interrupted by her father’s voice “Sit, we have to tell you something” was all he said while he pointed to a chair that was in front of both of her parents. She obeyed and took her place in the said chair. With her throat was completely dry, but she still managed to ask as calm as possible “Is everything alright?”

Her mother shifted, searching a position more comfortable, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation they would have, while her father cleared his throat “Your mother and I talked with the chief and with… some other people…” this was not helping, her anxiety was growing even more, she tried to stay calm tough, to not give herself “And…” she tried to make him continue. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes.

“Astrid, you’re getting married in a month.”


	3. A Nightmare That Became Reality

##  **Disclaimer: I DO NOT own How To Train Your Dragon**

* * *

## Chapter 3: A Nightmare That Became Reality

_Get married? A month? How? With who? Why?_ She could only stare at them, her gaze travelled from her father to her mother nonstop. After what seemed like forever, she finally reacted.

“Get married?” was all she could say and only loud enough so they could hear.

Her parents didn’t answer, although they already knew she wasn’t going to like the idea, they weren’t ready for this conversation, they didn’t have time to do so, they had just signed the marriage contract between the two families this afternoon and there wasn’t much time to prepare the conversation they are now having with their daughter.

In the other side of the table, Astrid was still in shock. Getting married? She? She never even thought of men much less in getting married. She never thought of getting married for two reasons. First of all, she doesn’t want to became a man’s slave, doesn’t want to be forced to do things for a man, doesn’t want for a man to take care of her life. Second reason, she doesn’t want to lose her freedom. She has secrets that, if discovered, could condemn her to death. Ok, maybe there is a third reason, she never thought about marriage and after that day she decided that she would never do it, definitely.

Receiving only silence in response, Astrid recovered from her initial shock and, more firmly this time, continued “What do you mean getting married? With who? And why in a month precisely?” with this, she looked her father in the eyes and could see a mix of emotions in them. Sadness, anger and determination.

“After you lost the Hofferson’s honor, the name you carry and should respect, the only way to win some honor back or maybe try to make people forget what happened, is with a god marriage.” He began “we sealed the treaty this afternoon, with the chief and the boy’s parents. You are getting married within a month because the boy’s parents asked to.”

“I already apologized so many times for ruining the family’s name, but marriage won’t be good to anyone, I’m not good for domestic, I’m not good to be a married woma-” Astrid started rambling until she was interrupted by her father, who was furious and screaming now.

“You’re not good for domestic! You’re not good to be a married woman! You’re not good to fight dragons and defend the village! What are you good for, Astrid, what for?” She was taken aback.

Her relationship with her parents was never good since she received that despised name and destroyed her family’s name, but hearing her father said this shook her.

Her mother said nothing, just followed the argument silently and with an expression unreadable. Her father took a deep breath and carried on “In that day, that wretched day when we discovered that we found out about your problem, my will was to disown you and never see you ever again. I just didn’t do it because you are my only heir, my only daughter and because I had hope that you would stop being an idiot, but nothing changed. 5 years and you’re still like this, a disappointment. This marriage is the only thing that can save you. You either get married or you lose everything.”

A silent tear ran down her face. How could he say something like that to his own daughter, his only daughter? Rage. Treason. Disappointment. She never thought her father would throw this to her face.

“Who am I going to marry?” she asked without showing any emotion in her voice.

“You are going to marry with Snotlout Jorgenson”

Without a single word, Astrid got up and made her way to her room. As soon as she got there, she slammed the door with all her forces. _Getting married with Snotlout. _One of her worst nightmares, reality. She preferred to get married to a yak. Her father thought in disowning her. Either she gets married or she loses everything. She thought about everything that he said and came with a question. _What do I have to lose?_

She has no friends anymore, no one respects her, her parents don’t love her, don’t want her and are going to make her get married with a man that always looked at her with nothing more than lust in his eyes.

_Nothing_. She has nothing to lose. They don’t want her, she disappears, but getting married with Snotlout, she won’t do.

She picked up a bag in the corner of her room and started to pack her things. She filled it with a fur blanket, three red sleeveless shirts, two dark spiked skirts, two leggings, bandages, some things she had in her room as first aid and closed the bag and hid it. She still had her boots on, her fur hoodie, her metal shoulder pads and her matching silver belt decorated with small skulls. Some time ago she had replaced her arm-wrappings with large, thick bracers covered in fur and she still had them on. Still completely dressed she pretended to be sleeping and waited some time.

* * *

After waiting maybe two hours, the young viking took her bag and went to her room’s door quietly. She made sure that both her parents were sleeping and went downstairs. She tried to be quick yet silent, she was trying to escape not being caught. She passed by the fireplace that was still lit and quickly made her way to the main door. Once outside, she felt the cool breeze of the night caress her face.

The whole village was already sleeping, nobody would stop her. She silently went to the forest and, without looking back, she continued her path and went inside the forest.

After walking with a brisk pace for about 30 minutes, the young viking came to a clearing, far enough away from the village that she was sure no one would ever find the place. In the clearing was a cave and she knew that who she was looking for would be there.

“Stormfly, are you there?” she called.

A familiar rumble was heard from inside the cave and she wasn’t able to contain the smile that appeared on her face. Not even a second later her beloved dragon came out of the cove, super happy and lively to see her friend and rider.

“Hello girl, how have you been? Sorry I didn’t come sooner.” The Nadder nudged her with the head “I’ve missed you too, but now, we’re gonna be together, we are going to find a place where you don’t have to hide all the time.”

Upon hearing this, the Nadder started to run in circles, excitedly. Stormfly is a beautiful Deadly Nadder, she is mainly blue but also as gold, purple and red scales and has a light beige underbelly. She has small hooks at the end of her wing joints and her tail is coated with a series of spines that can be used as projectiles, around her skull is a set of spikes end in front of her eyes is a curved nasal horn.

“I’m glad you liked the idea. Came here, let’s go…” she tied her bag to Stormfly’s saddle and rode her shortly after. When she was up in the skies she looked behind and saw the village where she grew up “Goodbye Berk.” And with that she flew away.

* * *

After some hours travelling, Stormfly and her rider were tired and saw an island.

“What do you say, girl? We rest here?” the dragon only grunted in response “Come on, we’re only going to patrol around the island to make sure it’s safe and then we rest.” With this they started to patrol.

The island was relatively small and within half an hour they already had patrolled the entire island “It looks like it’s safe and the sun’s already rising, let’s take a nap.”

The dragon wrapped around herself and Astrid laid down on the floor next to her. It was really uncomfortable, but she was so exhausted that she didn’t even care. She was ready to sleep when, suddenly, she felt movement next to her and when all the moving stopped, she was lying on top of Stormfly’s belly, under her wing and with her tail around her.

Astrid smiled to herself “Thanks girl.” and with that, they fell asleep. 

* * *

When they woke up, the sun was already high in the sky, Astrid stretched and looked around only to find Stormfly with a pile of fish in front of her. Seeing that her rider was awake, the dragon immediately picked a fish and gave it to her friend. “Thanks girl, but I think it’s better for me to cook it before I eat it. After all, I’m not like you dragons.” She giggled “I’ll be right back.”

She came back after a while, with some pieces of wood. She placed them on the ground and made a fire pit with it. “Would you help me?” she asked her friend. The Nadder understood and happily lit up the fire “Thank you girl.” She speared the fish on a stick and put it on the fire.

While she was cooking the fish, Astrid got time to think and soon she started to talk with her friend who had already eaten her fish and was now resting.

“Maybe I was hasty, what are we gonna do? Travel forever? We can’t do that, sooner or later we’re going to find trouble.”

She kept thinking a bit while she ate her fish, still without the Nadder’s attention, then she spoke again “We can search for a place where dragons are accepted.” This got the Nadder’s attention “A place where you and I can be together without you having to hide yourself all the time, where we can be together whenever we want… But what if that place doesn’t exist?” With this the dragon became upset “Ok, don’t worry, I got the solution, don’t be sad. If there is no place such as like that, we find a place in an island where we can be together.” Both were so excited with the idea, that when weird noises sounded both were caught by surprise.

“But this island surely won’t be.” Astrid quickly got up, went to Stormfly and they both flew away. 

* * *

During the first day away from home, the routine was always the same: find an island, security patrol, sleep, eat and set off in search of the ideal place, doing the process as many times as needed.

Nothing exiting happened, until the 5th night away from Berk, that they found an island with a fishing village. Astrid was reluctant, but decided to land on the island.

Little did she know that in this island the curse of her journey would change. 


End file.
